The primary function of a weatherstrip is to stop moisture from entering a specific area on a vehicle. The design of a weatherstrip is initially based upon a nominal sheet metal condition at the location that the weatherstrip is to be installed. The weatherstrip is then examined to determine if the weatherstrip can tolerate sheet metal variations which include retention flange height, seal gaps, retention flange thickness, set-offs and the like. Once the design of the weatherstrip is modified to accept the numerous design requirements the weatherstrip design is placed in commercial production.
However, quite often, the stated sheet metal variations are less than actual commercial production variations which the weatherstrip was initially designed to accommodate. Because of these unanticipated or extra variations, last minute design changes to the weatherstrip are quite often necessary to adapt to the excessive build variation on vehicles. It is because of these last minute variations in weatherstrip design that manufacturing costs increase and take longer to implement which leads to customer dissatisfaction. In addition, these weatherstrip design changes also cause the vehicle manufacturer to ultimately employ less than ideal practices in an attempt to stop leaks from occurring. The most common of these is to put a substance known as "mastic" into the carrier portion of the weatherstrip. Mastic is a mineral oil and clay mixture that is used to fill in and seal any gaps between the retention flange and the weatherstrip carrier where water might leak through. This is not an ideal solution to the problem since it adds cost to the part, creates another variable for the manufacturer to deal with and most importantly is not always affective in stopping the leak.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that there is a significant need for a weatherstrip design that overcomes the problems of the prior art. One aspect of the present invention is to provide a weatherstrip design that can tolerate sheet metal variations including retention flange height, seal gaps, retention flange thickness, set-offs and the like. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a weatherstrip design that once placed in commercial production is capable of adapting to many of the excessive build variations encountered on vehicles during commercial production